Taking [away] the initiative

Sound Politics' Ron Hebron just posted a piece on the continued attempts to scuttle the initiative process here in Washington. He outlines the various bills now in the works so I think it would be a worthwhile read--not to mention a good perspective that he adds.

I am surprised at the double standard that I've seen among the liberal establishment here in Washington. Most of them say they hate the electoral college because it's not democratic enough--they see it as a filter of public opinion, and in some ways they are right.

The contradiction happens, though, when you have these same "pro-democracy" liberals, who then get all fed-up with the initiatives that are so common on the west coast. I understand that it isn't a huge chunk of liberals, but it is still a noticeable group who, although not usually taking literal action, attack people like Tim Eyman. They don't attack what he does, they just attack him personally and try to pin every sort of dishonesty on him that they can dig up. True Mr. Eyman has had some pathetic initiatives and he as also not always been totally on the level with the public, but that does nothing to condemn the perfectly legal process that he uses to effect change.

I was talking to a professor of mine the other day and this came up. We both agreed to the fact that the initiative trend it a very dynamic feature of the west coast. She didn't give me to believe that she had a very high opinion of it either. She was also not very excited about he revote effort but didn't say why beyond that she thought it was a bad precedent or something.

Either the liberal negativity toward initiatives is based in principle and therefore they are against greater democracy, or it is not based in principle and they are playing simple partisanship because they are in power and therefore have the most to lose through it.